Arctic Blast!

My hummers keep humming, even in the snow.
Frozen papyrus; somewhere under there I hope my goldfishies are OK.

Our house looking wintery . .

Bird's Eye View

"Baby" and I soak up some toasty warm weekend sunshine. Yes I know it's pathetic that she has no tail.
Can I have some of this salad?

The Hanging Gardens of Little Si

4,000' Mount Si sports an accessory; Little Si, elevation 1,560'. An ancient glacial river cracked them apart, leaving a deep, dark and rocky canyon. On a misty overcast day, this is Pacific Northwest Paradise . . . softly glowing and vibrantly damp. The vertical rock face on the north side of Little Si drips with massive sword ferns; arched crowns over plush mossy thrones.

Northwest Tropical

This is the banana grove in the fabulous garden of artists George Little and David Lewis (http://www.littleandlewis.com/) which we visited earlier this year during the Bainbridge Island Garden Tour.
This is my banana tree, purchased from Top Foods for about $10. It's companion is an avocado I raised from a pup.

Front Porch Salad

Gardeners have to have something to check on every day; especially in the Season of Dark and Wet. I am considering sacrificing salad art for Thanksgiving dinner . . . if I can stand the loss.

The Inside Garden

I like the way the low winter sun lights up the plants in our living room window.

The Fuschia Pot

Fuschias are supposed to spend the winter in the garage, but these are still blooming, I think I'll leave them out until Thanksgiving.

There can't be anything more perfect than a fuschia blossom.

Sun Gold

While the rest of the tomato plants dissolve into blackened mush and mildew, Sun Gold soldiers on, still ripening its shiny little sweet/tart orbs. It clamored over the rest of the tomatoes, flung itself into the sunflowers and eensie weensie spidered up the water spout.

It was a beautiful summer for humans but a bad bad summer for tomatoes, and right now Sun Gold is the only one out of 6-8 varieties that will be invited back next year. "Ultra Super Extra Early?" Here that means last week of October. The word "Oregon" is included in the variety name? Best we can do . . . they don't breed a "Washington Spring." Buy plants from Territorial Seeds? Yeah yeah, they're the Big Dog in the Pacific Northwest, but that was just me being lazy. Next year I will start my own and use row covers. And sadly give up my love for the rowdy and extravagently foliaged but refuse-to-ripen indeterminates and go for the more plebian determinates.

Still Blooming . . .

This is Pelargonium 'Vancouver Centennial' still blooming happily away in November. It spent last winter indoors (there are actually several plants in the pot). It was infested with aphids, and had to be cut down to the nubs and sprayed several times with insecticidal soap. During its hybernation, the foliage remained pale green, but the red returned when the plant was moved back outside in the spring. So far it has not experienced another Attack of the Aphids.